미대유학 다양성 에세이

I was raised in Seoul by a family that valued listening over speaking. My grandmother, a calligrapher who lost her hearing in her thirties, taught me that silence can carry its own form of expression. From her I learned to observe movement, texture, and gesture as language. When I later moved to Los Angeles for my undergraduate studies in design, I realized that art could serve as translation between different modes of understanding. My personal and academic journey has been driven by a commitment to accessibility, collaboration, and community—values that resonate with UCLA’s mission to foster equity and innovation in the arts.

During high school I volunteered at a community art center in Seoul where many students were children of migrant workers. Because we shared no common language, we began communicating through drawings and collage. This experience revealed to me how creative practice can overcome linguistic barriers and empower those who feel unheard.
At university, I pursued Communication Design and later joined a multicultural collective that used public art to address social visibility. My first project, Echo Wall, invited participants to record whispers about belonging; their voices were projected as light patterns on urban facades. It was in this moment that I understood diversity not as a theme but as a method—an open system for shared expression.

My creative research focuses on translation as a metaphor for cultural and emotional mobility. Working across video, installation, and interactive design, I explore how marginalized voices can reshape visual communication. For example, my recent series Unwritten Scripts transforms sign language gestures into kinetic typography that reacts to viewer movement. The project emerged from collaboration with deaf artists in Korea and Los Angeles and reinforced my belief that accessibility is an aesthetic principle as much as a social responsibility.
Through such work, I hope to contribute to UCLA’s interdisciplinary culture by bridging art, technology, and community engagement. The Design Media Arts faculty’s commitment to socially responsive practice mirrors my own vision of art as a transformative dialogue.

Outside the studio, I have worked as a mentor for first-generation students preparing for art college admissions. Many felt discouraged by financial and linguistic barriers; together we developed portfolios that centered personal narratives rather than formal perfection. I also co-organised a student-led workshop series on “Art and Accessibility,” introducing inclusive design tools for people with different abilities. These projects taught me that mentorship is a form of activism—creating pathways for others to participate in spaces from which they have been excluded.
At UCLA, I plan to continue this work by collaborating with the Art | Global Health Center and the Graduate Students Association’s Equity Committee to develop peer-to-peer learning platforms for international artists.

My goal is to expand my practice into a research-based model that combines artistic production with social design. Through UCLA’s MFA Art program, I hope to investigate how technology and participatory methods can build inclusive art ecosystems. Ultimately, I intend to establish a nonprofit residency connecting artists from Asia and the U.S. to co-create projects about migration and cultural memory.
I believe that diversity is not about representation alone—it is about redistributing the means of creation. Through UCLA’s collaborative environment, I hope to turn that belief into practice.

My personal history has taught me to see difference as a source of invention. Art became my first language when words were insufficient, and it continues to be my tool for building bridges across silence. At UCLA, I wish to contribute to a community that values not only what we make, but how we listen and care through the process of making.